Japanese-Empire War
The Japanese-Empire War, also known as the Inter-World War was the first conflict between a nation on Earth and one in a parallel universe, specifically between Japan and the Empire. The outbreak of war The war began in 20xx when the Empire, a militaristic, hegemonic and cosmopolitan civilization located in a world with magic and medieval weapons simply known as the "Special Region", deployed its armies through the Gate into another world in a blind attempt to conquer territories beyond the gate and enslave the native population. Originally the imperial expedition was tasked to scout and investigate the opponent's power to determine their strength and then conclude whether it was more beneficial to take the people beyond the portal as friends or foe, but the emperor Molt Sol Augustus decided unilaterally to order the attack, without hearing the opinion of the Imperial Senate. The Gate led them into the Ginza district of Tokyo. With the help of the surprise, the Imperial forces were able to capture some war prisoners, kill a few hundred of defenseless civilian and cause serious damage to the buildings of Ginza, but in the end they were defeated by the combined force of the Tokyo Police and the JSDF, with more than 6.000 imperial soldiers and nobles taken as prisoners. The superior technology of the JSDF proved sufficient to decimate the medieval armies of the Empire, completely unprepared to repel in any way a force of such magnitude. A few months later, the JSDF launched a counter-offensive through the Gate. On the other side of the gate there was the Allied Army of the Empire's vassal kingdoms, waiting at the foot of Alnus Hill the imminent arrival of the JSDF's armed forces for the battle. The allied army was completely unaware of the kind of enemy who would fight and was unaware of the intentions of the imperial army to not engage the enemy in battle alongside of them. The Allied Army was crushed by the superior firepower of the tanks, artillery, and small arms of the JSDF, with over 60,000 losess among their ranks. After the end of the battle of Alnus Hill it is estimated that the Empire's casualties since the outbreak of the conflict amounted to over 120,000. The battle of Alnus Hill was the last time that the Empire dared to face the JSDF in battle on an open field. Must also be noted the growing interest of the other nations of the world, such as Russia, China and the United States, for the enormous potential of the lands beyond the Gate as a new source of exploitable resources by starting to act behind the scenes for the benefits granted from the Gate. Japan has refused any offer from the other countries to carry on the war with a joint military effort. The United States has formed an alliance with Japan to supply the JSDF of weapons and ammunition in exchange for a privileged position in the exploitation of the Special Region's resources. Other countries, such as China and Russia, have begun to consider the idea of invading Japan just to take control of the Gate and colonize the Special Region. Expansion and consolidation After the victory at Alnus Hill, the JSDF forces started to consolidate their position around the Gate with the construction of a permanent base at Alnus, including defensive walls, machine gun nests, barracks, command posts, armories, supply warehouses, firing ranges, motor pools and landing facilities for both helicopters and fixed-wing aircrafts. In order to secure a sizeable amount of territory, defend the land around the gate and negotiate with the enemy, the JSDF needed to gather intelligence to formulate future plans. With the help of helicopters and unmanned reconnaissance drones they could take aerial pictures of the land around the Gate to map the surrounding areas. After that they started investigation on human cities, population, races, industry, religion, political landscape and the culture of the people native of the Special Area through the use of six recon teams. Meanwhile the emperor Molt Sol Augustus, after learning of the defeat of the Empire's vassal kingdoms at Alnus Hill, decided to pursue a scorched earth policy to prevent the enemy from obtaining supplies, and then halt their advance. He believed that without a way to forage supplies locally, supplies would have to be sent from Japan, on the other side of the Gate. It would be a heavy burden on their horses. This way, the enemy's fighting potential would be lower the closer they approached the imperial capital, the city of Sadera, giving the Empire’s army the advantage when fighting near the capital. A sound strategy, theoretically speaking, but completely useless against an army equipped with motorized vehicles and capable of great mobility such as the JSDF. This type of tactic also has the disadvantage of causing severe damage in all the Empire's lands that separate the Gate from the capital. The total disregard of the Empire for the livelihoods of its own people by robbing their food and water caused the loss of the people's support to the imperial war effort, with the risk of generating a resentment that will last for generations and cause further civil instability. This moment will also mark the beginning of a growing disunity between the emperor and the imperial senate, because of the excessively extreme methods of the emperor and his complete indifference to the opinions of senators. The six deep investigation teams began to contact the residents inside several assigned zones in the surroundings of Alnus Hill to take a first contact with the Empire's civilian population and understand their situation. They found out that much of the empire's population in the countryside (mainly farmers) wasn't even aware of being at war with them, showing no particular feeling of resentments against the Japanese foreigners. The investigative expeditions have also allowed to the JSDF to become aware of the existence of the many dangerous species of the native megafauna of the Special Region, in particular of the so-called “Flame Dragon”. The Third Recon Team, commanded by First Lieutenant Yōji Itami, managed to befriend several members of the local population, in particular Rory Mercury, Lelei La Lalena and Tuka Luna Marceau, three individuals who have subsequently proven in more than one occasion to be fundamental allies for the prosecution of the JSDF's war campaign. After the destruction of the Coda village because of the Flame Dragon, Coda's refugees were brought to Alnus Hill by Yōji Itami to offer them shelter and humanitarian aid. Several housing facilities were built by the JSDF personnel outside the walls of their military fort for the refugees, but after several months this refugee camp became a full fledged community as the JSDF started to garner more support and establish friendlier relationships with local communities, with Alnus gaining the amenities a regular town would have: living quarters, bars, and etc. First friendly contacts After being called into question his ability to lead the military campaign, the emperor Molt Sol Augustus ordered to his daughter Piña Co Lada and her Rose-Order of Knights, only military unit of the Empire remained unaffected by the recent defeats against the JSDF, to go to Alnus Hill and scout the enemy. She discovered that king Duran of the Kingdom of Elbe was survived to the battle of Alnus Hill, so she gained valuable information from him about the military power of the enemy, but she also learned about the betrayal of the imperial army, which wasn't present on the battle field before the attack. From this moment on, king Duran renounced to provide any further support to the Empire. Then she moved to the city of Italica, a city under the control of House Formal, just ahead of Alnus Hill, believing that it was under siege by the otherworlders, only to find out that the city was attacked by an army of scattered remnants of the defeated Army of United Kingdoms that had defected and turned into marauders. Piña helped with her troops and the guard of Italica to repel the army of the bandits, successfully repelling the first attack, although with many casualties. Without any possible alternative, she requested the help of the Third Recon Team of the JSDF, which was approaching the city for business purposes, only to buy enough time to allow to the rest of the order's knights to come to her aid to Italica. The second attack turned out to be far more devastating than the first one, forcing the third recon team to request air support from the base of Alnus. The combined strength of the Rose-Order of Knights' contingent, third recon team, Italica's citizens and Rory Mercury proved enough to hold off the enemy troops long enough to allow the arrival of the JSDF 4th Combat Unit on helicopters, who practically wiped out the bandit army with their overwhelmingly superior firepower. After the battle of Italica, Piña fully realized the far superior military power of the JSDF and that the Empire was doomed to face a crushing and utter defeat against them if the emperor and the senate hadn’t agreed to make use of diplomacy as soon as possible to forge a peace treaty and minimize the losses. Because of the JSDF's outstanding contribution with no request of payment, Piña decided to sign a treaty with JSDF concerning the war prisoners and refugees of Italica and thus lay the foundation for future peaceful interactions. The text and points of the treaty are listed below: *The JSDF can choose any 3-5 captives from this battle to take them with. All profits gained from the chosen captives and rights over their treatment belong solely to the JSDF. Furthermore, Clan Formal and the Empire promise to refrain from cruel treatment to the captives during their restraint. *As a sign of gratitude towards the JSDF's reinforcement, Clan formal and the imperial princess Piña Co Lada will ensure safety during travel and stay of a meditating delegation between the country of Japan and the emperor and senate. Furthermore, the size of the delegation and share of expenses are decided trough consultation, but a minimum of 100 suwanis are to be burdened by the countess and princess. *The Alnus living community under guardianship of the JSDF is from now on exempted from all taxes raised on trading and money exchange within the city of Italica and all other areas within rule of countess Formal. *As soon as the agreements above take effect, the JSDF under Col. Kengun are to leave the county without taking any of the resident’s wealth, expect for the captives agreed on, as soon as possible. However, the Alnus living community and small groups contacted for service are to given safe passage through the lands under rule of countess Formal. *This agreement is valid 1 year. It automatically renews itself unless objected from both parties. The forces of the JSDF left the city peacefully, but along the way the third recon team crossed its way with the troops of the Rose-Order of Knights, who had arrived late to help the city of Italica for the battle, guided by Bozes Co Palesti and Panache Fure Kalgi, who were unaware of the end of the battle, the nature of the attackers who laid siege to the city and the treaty just signed with Piña. The knights successfully captured First Lieutenant Yōji Itami and forced the rest of the third recon team to a strategic retreat, in order to recover their leader at a later time. They tortured and tormented him all along the way to Italica, believing that he was part of the army that had attacked the city. Once arrived to Italica and having reported of the captured prisoner, Bozes was forced by princess Piña, who feared the JSDF's retaliation for the breaking of the treaty on the same day that had been signed, to make atonement by sleeping with Itami and so convince him not to report to his superiors about the incident. The situation worsened when Bozes punched Itami in the head simply because he had ignored her and her offer. When the rest of the recon team returned to Italica to recover Itami, they decided to ignore the incident to try to keep still valid the treaty. During the recovery, Lelei, who was working with the recon team, casually mentioned the fact that Itami had to go away from there as soon as possible because invited by the Japanese National Diet to report about the recent clashes between the JSDF and the Flame Dragon. Princess Piña, thinking it was just an excuse to allow him to leave and report of the breaking of the treaty to the Japanise Diet, decided to accompany them, along with Bozes as bodyguard, to Alnus and personally apologize to the JSDF's commanders. At Alnus base they met with Lieutenant General Kōichirō Hazama, leader of the JSDF forces in the Special Region, and 1st lieutenant Akira Yanagida, with which they resolved the misunderstanding, in the best interest of both parties. In accordance with the decision of using princess Piña as an unofficial intermediary for secret negotiations between Japan and the Empire and a source of information about the Empire's point of view about the war to facilitate interactions between their nations, the princess and Bozes were invited to a non-official meeting in Tokyo, on the other side of the Gate, to discuss about the arrangements for a hypothetical future peace treaty (their presence in Japan at this point of the war would have caused a lot of problems if it were made public, so, on paper, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japanese Prime Minister’s Office was officially unaware that they were in Japan). The secret meeting was organized to be presided by Councilor Shirayuri Reiko, the Prime Minister’s aide, and Sugawara Kouji from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the meeting they not negotiated a peace, but they discussed about her recommendations about the Empire's key personnel useful for negotiations, how large the Japanese envoy would be, where they would stay, how they would pay their expenses, to check out the possible bribes that could be presented to the Empire's negotiators, to request reciprocal visits between important figures, and to send the Empire's personnel to learn Japanese in the JSDF territories. The last discussion was about the matter of the prisoners. Councilor Shirayuki reported to Piña that the Japanese government had captured roughly 6000 members of the Imperial Army during the battle of Ginza, many of whom were high-ranking officers, and transferred all of them to a POW camp on an unmanned island in the Seto Inland Sea (in addition, several non-human prisoners (goblins, ogres, etc.) had been taken away by the USA in the name of “Investigations by the United Nations”). She also added that Japan doesn't practice the ransoming of prisoners and the trade of slaves in the current age (practices however still in vogue in the Empire). Under those conditions, Japanese government preferred to take the Empire's payment in means other than hard currency: for instance, in exchange for the release of the captives, Japan would have expected certain concessions from the Empire. In order to give to princess Piña some bargaining power as mediator, Shirayuki reported that the Japanese government were willing to unconditionally release a select group of captives that Piña will select, in order to use these terms to ensure a good conclusion for the future negotiations. Piña was aware that many sons of imperial senators and nobles had participated to the battle of Ginza and probably many of them were still alive among the prisoners of war, so she decided to take advantage of this opportunity to achieve peace by blackmailing the senators and convince them to negotiate with Japan in exchange for the release of their relatives. The meeting ended with the promise to arrange a visit to the prisoners in their holding facility during their next visit to Japan and to receive a full list of the names of all captives to be shown to the imperial senators. The rest of their short stay in Japan was quite busy due to the pressing presence of some undercover special forces from foreign nations, such as the United States, Russia and China, all interested in kidnapping the visitors from the Special Region for some obscure purpose. The most dramatic moment was during the Hakone Incident, but in the end everything was resolved in the best way and they were able to return to the gate and the Special Region safe and sound. Must also be noted that during an inspection at the sentry post at the entrance of the Gate, just before returning to the Special Region, the Japanese sentries discovered two pistols that had been very well concealed upon Piña and Bozes’ persons (a discovery with possible dire consequences for the Empire, considering they were two citizens of an enemy nation came into possession of weapons with the potential to revitalize the Empire's war effort). Sergeant First Class Shino Kuribayashi, who was part of the escort of the visitors from the Special Region, affirmed that the pistols were only for self-protection and that they had allowed them to temporarily carry the pistols just in case. In truth, the real intention of Piña and Bozes was to bring the pistols to Sadera secretly and pass them on to the best craftsmen they could find, and force them to reproduce such weapons in as many as possible, at any cost, in order to prevent that all the possible future battles against the JSDF would not be one-sided slaughters like in the previous battles. But their secret plan was unsuccessful and the weapons were confiscated by the sentries. Subsequent interactions Shortly afterwards, princess Piña Co Lada begins negotiation which lead to an uneasy peace between Japan and the Empire. This peace, however, threatens to be shattered by the revelation that Japanese citizens captured early in the Battle of Ginza were taken as slaves, as well as the recent poisoning of Molt Sol Augustus and the ascension of his warlike son, Zorzal Caesar to the throne. Gallery Empire's flag 6.png|Imperial Army at the beginning of the battle of Ginza Battle of ginza 1.png|Imperial auxiliaries at the beginning of the battle of Ginza Allied Army's leaders.png|The Leaders of the Allied Army meet to discus the plan on attacking the JSDF Alnus imperials.png|Troops of the Allied Army advance on Alnus Hill. Kingdom of Alguna 3.png|The army of Alguna a few seconds before being annihilated by the JSDF's artillery. alnus artillery.png|Artillery fire strikes the Allied Army during the first assault. Alnus aftermath.png|The aftermath of the first allied army assault. Alnus tanks.png|JSDF Type 74 tanks fired on enemy troops from entrenched positions. Kingdom of Elbe 9.png|Troops of the Kingdom of Elbe form testudo/tortoise formation with their shields. This proves to be useless against JSDF small arms fire. Duran's last shot.png|Duran fires a single arrow at JSDF positions, shortly before being severely wounded by artillery fire. Jade palace battle.png|A battle between a knight of the Rose order and a imperial soldier during the siege of the Jade Palace